


What Changes We Wrought

by Merfilly



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-10 07:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3282263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako slips away to grieve</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Changes We Wrought

Mako had never been afraid to cry. There was a time and a place for it, but she knew it brought cleansing and held no shame.

With the first celebrations well underway, she slipped free of all those offering sympathy or congratulations to have the privacy she wanted for those tears. Her mentor and guardian were as lost to her as he family had been. Yes, there were the memories, were he was alive, for the Drift made everything as immediate as a person could wish for, or dread. That was the lure and threat of the Drift.

It would be one more thing to guard against… except the kaiju were gone. That was why she had lost him, so she would never need to be reminded fully of who and what he had been for her. She would never need to sync her mind with …

"It's not that easy," Raleigh said, standing just inside her door. He'd entered, closed it, and she didn't feel like it was an intrusion at all. He was part of her, that was how he knew, they were one…

"What have we done to ourselves?" Mako whispered, just now beginning to understand at the emotional level what existed once the machine rested, and only the humans remained.

"I don't know, Mako. But it marked us, makes us know things we shouldn't, makes us feel the one we Drift with." He crossed and sat on the edge of her bed, after hesitating for her to nod and grant permission. 

"But you…."

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. "There's a disconnect. He's always there, and he's always dying." He reached out, wiping her tears from one side of her face. "But sometimes… sometimes I get to the part where he's just there, and for a few minutes, I can have peace. Or I did." He gave that crooked little smile at her. "Now, there's you. And you are alive, whole… and my partner. It's a two-way street. I respected him… he finished raising you. It's harder for you, but I'm here to lean on. No need to brave-face me."

She matched his smile, though her eyes were still sad. "No… no there is not." She moved closer, and he opened his body up so that she tucked under his arm in a synchronized motion. "Will you show me more of the man you knew, if we may use the equipment to Drift again?"

"I'd love to, Mako. I promise."

Mako nodded, then settled to let the immediate grief escape into the comfort offered by her partner. She was her father's daughter, Pentecost's student… and now Raleigh wished her to be his peer, defining herself and helping him find who he could be now.

This would be their new life.


End file.
